Students Gain Conservation Awards from the John Muir Trust

The John Muir Award ethos is “Discover a wild place, explore it, do something to conserve it, share your experiences.”

Students used the Jurassic Coast and New Forest National Park as their inspiration and worked with College staff, Dorset Wildlife Trust, BCP Heath Rangers, Brownsea Island and The New Forest Education team to explore and carry out conservation work.

The Award is inclusive, accessible and non-competitive, but is designed to challenge each individual. It encourages awareness and responsibility for the natural environment through structured challenges, in a spirit of fun, adventure and exploration.

It also gives people experience in learning about wild places, land management and can even promote career development. Participants must show enthusiasm towards their involvement and the students completed the Conserver Award, which took a commitment the equivalent of 20 days.

In addition to rural conservation sites, students can also explore and improve urban habitats such as local public gardens. Within all sites, they learn green skills such as gardening, clearing bracken, using multiple hand tools, litter picking, working as a team and more.

Foundation Placement Adviser, Karen Chase, who organised the activities said,

“Caring for our environment is so important and my students loved taking part and relished the challenges they had to tackle. We aligned it with our Enrichment, and Personal, Social Development sessions and are so proud that the students achieved the Awards, and to have demonstrated this commitment to sustainability. I’d recommend any teachers to get their students involved.”